About the SGC Open Chemistry Networks

The aim of the Open Chemistry Networks (OCN) initiative is to bring together your synthetic chemistry and the SGC's biochemistry to create new bioactive small molecules (chemical probes) and use them to accelerate the search for new medicines. All the work conducted within the OCN will be open and patent-free. Open and inclusive chemistry projects conducted on an international scale improves the public good - better science leads to better chemical tools for the understanding of biology. OCN is led by Dr. Mat Todd from his SGC laboratory at University College London (UCL).

Mat and the SGC team have been pioneering “open science” for decades. Often referred to as “open source” science, the OCN initiative is highly inclusive - anyone can take part in OCN projects. The licenses and terms of use applied to contributions are simple to understand and are comparable to a Creative Commons license. The contributions are openly licensed for use by others with the maximum levels of freedom (including commercial use), with the expectation that the originator must be properly credited. Visit the OCN Terms of Use and Participation and see the Frequently Asked Questions section if you would like more detail.

Projects are housed on GitHub and range from understudied to high-interest targets.

Seeking Scientists and Researchers

The OCN is seeking synthetic chemists around the world who want to collaborate to discover new biology by creating new chemical probes. Undergraduate, graduate students and postdocs in academia, as well as interested chemists in industry, are the ideal OCN contributors. Everyone is welcome, and the infrastructure needed for people to be able to contribute, such as online lab notebooks, discussion platforms and a compound registration system, are all provided. Open science projects are inclusive, as diversity is essential to the success of OCN.

In addition to advancing science, contributors will be part of a global initiative that includes scientists at SGC specializing in probe biology, and champions from the pharmaceutical industry. Contributors can use project data in publications that can be co-authored by the team, and are encouraged to use project data to support their grant proposals to generate follow-on funding.

You can learn more by emailing chemistry@thesgc.org or consider being a Sir James Murray Student Champion.